Arts organizations gearing for Live PC Give PC fund drive

Arts-Kids, Egyptian Theatre and Mountain Town Music are just three of many

Last year, more than 55 nonprofit organizations that served the Park City area participated in the Park City Foundation's Live PC Give PC, one-day online fund drive that ran from midnight to midnight on Nov. 11.

This year, more than 80 organizations will participate in the fundraiser, and 32 of them are related to arts and culture.

Among those nonprofits are Arts-Kids, The Egyptian Theatre and Mountain Town Music.

Arts-Kids

Arts-Kids is a free, after-school youth development program held in Park City and Summit County-area schools, said Executive Director Pat Drewry Sanger.

"The program targets children with unique economic and social pressures, but also children who love art," she said. "The program involves eight-week sessions in all the elementary and middle schools in Summit County and at Park City High School. We go to different schools throughout the week and hold these sessions."

Arts-Kids participated in the Live PC Give PC fund drive last year and raised close to $2,000.

"That put us in the middle of the pack, which pleased me, because a lot of people don't really think about us when they donate to nonprofit organizations," Sanger said.

What helped boost the donations, was the list that was found at the Live PC Give PC website (livepcgivepc.razoo.com).

"Last year, many people saw the list of nonprofit organizations and saw us and donated to us for the first time," Sanger said.

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"Some were people I knew and some were people weren't and then we had some anonymous donors as well."

Sanger and some volunteers teamed up with the Youth Winter Sports Alliance, another nonprofit, and held an event at the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse.

"We took our laptops and art supplies and then went to the Park City Film Series later and did the same thing," Sanger said. "While we didn't have many people use our computers to donate, they got to know us by using our art supplies."

This year, Arts-Kids is collaborating again with the Youth Winter Sports Alliance and Habitat for Humanity of Summit and Wasatch Counties for another activity at the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse.

"We'll take some art supplies and hard hats and stuff that will represent the Youth Winter Sports Alliance to get some attention," Sanger said. "We're hoping to get a crowd to support Live PC Give PC, because we need to deepen our donor base."

Another nonprofit that is returning to the Live PC Give PC fund drive is the Egyptian Theatre.

Its mission is to be a community-gathering place that will program live entertainment on the stage as often as possible.

Manager Randy Barton said he likes the idea of having a day set aside for the community to give to these organizations.

"The Park City Foundation is an incredible contributor to the community in their role of and umbrella entity that generates funds for nonprofits, and this is a great way to highlight how valuable nonprofit entities are in Park City," Barton said. "It gets the whole community thinking how important it is to support these organizations.

"Also, they have given people a way to see how many hard-working nonprofits are in Park City," he said.

Nonprofits are very different than businesses, because they are kept alive through donations and support, Barton said.

The benefit of Live PC Give PC is the option for donors to give a little to many organizations or give a lot to one.

"I like that it allows people to donate in small and large amounts, because those small amounts do add up," he said.

This year, Barton and some of his staff will stand outside the Egyptian Theatre, 328 Main St., to solicit donations.

"Because we have an event that day we will be hosting the Winter Sports School graduation, we won't be able to invite the public into the theatre," Barton said. "However, some of our staff out and about at other locations spreading the word.

"It's not like we're all going to be sitting at our computers waiting for people to donate," he said. "We're going to be out there among the people in the community talking to them and connecting with them. In fact, all the nonprofits are doing their part to participate in the fundraiser."

Brian Richards, the director of Mountain Town Music, which provides free live concerts throughout the county during the summer, said the live-music pub crawl he scheduled for the evening of Nov. 16, is not just a Mountain Town Music event.

"We teamed up with musicians from the Local Musicians Network of Park City (LMNOP) to raise awareness and raise funds for many of the other nonprofit organizations here in Park City," Richards said. "It's more like a Live PC Give PC evening, that happens to feature live music."

Richards wants people to know that the crawl will give different nonprofits the opportunity to make their own presentations between music sets.

"That way people can come out and support their favorite organizations throughout the evening," he said.

The crawl will begin at 7 p.m. at the Spur Bar & Grill, 352 Main St. with music by Jack and Karri Walzer from the local band Lash Larue.

"They will be joined by some of their friends," Richards said. "The cool thing about this is that there will be a number of musicians who will perform at the different stops, and each set will last between 45 minutes to an hour."

From the Spur, the crawl will proceed to Downstairs at 625 Main St., where the audience will hear Junior Richard from Junior & the Transportation play with some of his friends from 8 p.m. until 8:45 p.m.

"Then we'll head to Lindzee O'Michaels (825 Main St.), which will be set up for Pete Ruud & His Soulmates," Richards said.

The crawl will end up at High West Distillery, 703 Park Ave., at 10 p.m. for a jam session that will run until midnight.

The session will include musicians from LMNOP and other local bands and artists, Richards said.

"We'll hopefully have representatives from other nonprofits get up and speak and we'll have our smartphones on hand so people can make donations along the way," he said.

The idea for the pub crawl is to get the community physically involved with Live PC Give PC, Richards said.

"Last year, a lot of people made donations at home from their computers, but this year, we're hoping that people will come out to the event, celebrate the nonprofits and support them," he said. "There are so many nonprofit organizations that make Park City such a fun, hip place to live. It's enjoyable knowing that we can celebrate them on one day.

"While we, as organizations, are constantly competing against each other for the same donors, it's nice to be able to have a day where donors can choose to support one of us or five or six of us," he said. "It's a day of solidarity and we're celebrating Park City together as nonprofits and the community."

The Park City Foundation's Live PC Give PC fund drive, a 24-hour event that will raise money for Park City area nonprofits, will take place on Friday, Nov. 16. For more information, visit livepcgivepc.razoo.com.